How Advertising Has Ruined the Internet
There is no article you can read, video you can view, or social feed you can scroll through without being interrupted.
The never-ending series of desperate attempts to steal our attention from what we actually want to see results in surprise after unwelcome surprise – pop-up and modals and “welcome mats” that leave us searching for the opt-out.
It’s one thing to earn our attention by producing great content. It’s quite another to steal attention by being the thing that interrupts us from that great content.
Every time I experience this, I feel like I’ve been Rickrolled.
Show Notes
- If you don’t know what a Rickroll is, let me Rickroll you right here (though it’s not Rickrolling if you know it’s coming). Or you can skip to 8:28 of this episode (after the music) and I’ll define it for you in 20 seconds.
- If you want to know more about how soft-touch, ethical marketing is not only more respectful to us as consumers, but more effective too, here’s an overview of The New Marketing and Sales.
If you liked this rant, here’s another about The One Word That Diminishes Your Work. This podcast is not always rants, but bad marketing drives me crazy and sometimes I can’t help myself. If you’re interested, I invite you to subscribe so I can let you know when new episodes publish.
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I‘ve listened to your podcast for long time. I really like all the topics about content marketing you’ve covered. They are all practical and really helpful to solve real problems. Thanks.
Nice rant Michael but honestly, I couldn’t agree more lol. My BIGGEST peeve is when another musician sends me an obvious copy/paste with no personal touch just saying “hey check out my music”. I like the term “RickRolled” – if you want the ultimate RickRoll check out this YouTube video… best video editing I’ve ever seen… someone definitely had too much time on their hands but you will never “see” Rick Astley performed like this 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf79MCuQ8jM
Love it – Detroit R(i)ck at its finest!